19 American Towns Purchased by a Single Owner

The abandoned buildings were not anonymous ruins to Joe Bono. His family belonged to them. Bono had spent his earliest years in Gleeson, Arizona, where his father operated a store during the old copper town’s final inhabited period. Decades later, after military service and a life elsewhere, he noticed a for-sale sign near the historic jail. In 2014, he purchased nearly all of the surviving historic core, including the restored 1910 jail and surrounding structures, leaving only one notable parcel outside the deal. The irony was personal: the building not included was the old Bono family store, which remained in different ownership.